TGH writes: "Fans of the original series might be a little disappointed with this episode's design, as it steers focus away from the main icons of the series. The reason behind this decision is to ease new people into the franchise without thrusting them into a journey of confusion. Fortunately, through clever design and writing, it still maintains many of the traits of past "Monkey Island" games, or, more specifically, it still has the witty dialog and painful puzzles to solve. It's definitely a risky stance, especially when most games nowadays are praised for spoon feeding the player.

However, this is not to praise that having hard puzzles is always a good thing. One thing LucasArts has often done well is in their past adventure games is mix absurdity with logic. In "Launch of the Screaming Narwhal," a lot of the puzzles are hit and miss. Some are ridiculously easy while others, such as the two maze puzzles, may force you to buy a new keyboard after adequate fits of rage. It doesn't help the controls are forced..."